For our March gallery opening we have teamed up with Ross Adams to bring punk to the Plaza District for Everything is not o.k. II "how do you put a price on garbage?" This 4 day event will be filled with art, punk and fun. DNA will host 3 artists on our walls with a wild mix of illustration and screen printing.

Annavittoria Conner brings her take on "fourth wave feminism" to the show through her printmaking techniques. Armors, a series of illustration by Boo Boo Danger, hope to expose past identities and hidden truths seen in the adornments of punk torsos. Pearl Olsen focuses her energy on sumi inks on kozo paper for a series of "Illustrations for a story about escape and survival."

Join us Thursday March 10th from 6-9pm for the Artist Preview Reception the evening preceding our regularly scheduled 2nd Friday Opening the following night during Live On The Plaza from 7-11pm. Don't miss the poetry reading by: Joseph Sulier on Saturday afternoon.

ARTISTS QUESTIONS

Where are you from?Denton, Texas. An amazing place to be from creativity wise. I went to The University of North Texas there and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. The print program was worth every penny.

How would you describe your latest body of work?Slutty, sexy, and goofy. I’m trying to figure out fourth wave feminism along with a lot of other contemporary creatives. I like to talk about prostitution, sex, gender roles, trans-sexuality, amongst many other issues.

What inspires you?Women. I embrace all kinds of women but I’m mostly inspired by the outcasts and underdogs. Visually I’m inspired by other artists but conceptually I’m inspired by personal accounts and various books that deal with these issues. Of course music and film plays a role in my art as well. After I watched Tangerine I drew for days, after I read Playing the Whore I created my latest print.

How did you get started?I’ve always made art, even as a child but I didn’t get into printmaking until one of my best friends, Josh Banks, suggested it to me. He is an amazing printmaker and musician and after he suggested my work would translate well within the medium I took the ball and ran with it.

What are your goals for the future?I have two more years of grad school at OU and my biggest goal at the moment is to find my voice as a graduate student and make my professors proud.

What advice do you have to artists?Support the art world. Buy zines, prints, shirts, anything you can afford! Support the arts, go to openings and make friends within the art community. If you don’t support others how can you ask for support yourself?

Boo Boo DangerWhat is your medium/process?I typically work with pen and ink on paper or digital depending on the project. For this body of work I chose ink and gauche on bristol.

Where are you from?Originally I’m from Boston but I’ve been living in Oakland, CA for seven years.

How would you describe your latest body of work?Armors is a portrait series in a sense. As a young punk my friends and I used our jackets and vests to create our identities. Band names, slogans, political affiliations. As an adult I look back on those jackets and I think about the things that I was hiding from the world and myself. Armors is about exposure.

What inspires you?I try to keep myself open to inspiration at all times. Cities, books, comics, movies, other artists. There is also a constant dialogue running in my head outside of my own influence and sometimes I need to draw out the ideas presented there to visualize and understand them.

How did you get started?When I was 12 or 13 I got a spiral-bound sketch book and started trying to recreate graffiti I saw in my neighborhood; ads I liked in Thrasher and Propaganda magazines; and record covers by Pushed, Raymond Pettibon, and Mad Marc Rude. Soon I was spray painting around town and making art for my own bands.

What are your goals for the future?Make more stuff. Do more stuff. I’ve got a lot of irons in a lot of fires right now but there is always room for more.

What advice do you have to artists?The more you do the easier it gets. Make zines, stickers, buttons, flyers, greeting cards, whatever. Make stuff that you like; someone else is bound to like it too.

Pearl OlsenWhat is your medium/process?Right now all I do is draw with sumi brushes and ink, or sometimes watercolor, mainly on translucent kozo paper, because I received the brushes and paper as gifts and so I'm working my way through them until I run out and am forced to spend money on more supplies. I used to draw with pens but they were too familiar and made me too obsessive. Using the long brushes instead of pens helps me move quickly and work with whatever happens on the page. I set up my workspace so I could draw with natural light during the day but I always end up making pieces at 10 or 11 at night under a desk lamp.

Where are you from?I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and I've been living in Saint Louis, Missouri for 6 years.

How would you describe your latest body of work?Illustrations for a story about escape and survival.

What inspires you?People around me who trust themselves without egotism. Things that are just trying to manifest and exist on the margins.

How did you get started?I practiced drawing constantly while I was growing up, then abandoned it at age 17 when I failed my Advanced Placement art test, then picked it up again in 2014 when people started asking me to do illustrations for zines and flyers for punk shows.

What are your goals for the future?To work less hours so I can sit around doing nothing more and produce the same amount of work, but the work will be better.

What advice do you have to artists?Don't be afraid of: idleness, time spent repulsed by art-making, long periods of dullness. These are a part of making things just as much as the active production of work. I consider my 8-year hiatus from drawing to be the most important element to my current work. Things made when identifying strongly as an "artist" will almost always suck. Trust peripheral vision more than trained focus. Don't go to art school or listen to advice from people who did unless it is "don't go to art school."

victory in loss by bjorn bauer // dec 12

For December we fill our gallery with "Victory In Loss" a new series of oil painting and individually embellished screen prints by Oklahoma based artist Bjorn Bauer. The series contains a consistent theme but builds a visual contrast between the styles and qualities seen in the paintings and prints.

Artist QuestionsWhat is your medium/process?
Primarily oil painting and screen printing, but I also experiment with mixed media and take on various illustration projects.

Where are you from?
I lived in Germany until I was eight, then lived in the Philippines, Cambodia, and Malaysia, but I've lived in Oklahoma for the past fourteen years.

How would you describe your latest body of work?
This latest set of pieces is titled Victory in Loss, and these pieces mark somewhat of a shift form my previous work, which has mostly been in a more straightforwardly expressionist style. The new work consists of oil paintings and individually embellished screen prints. I've used a consistent set of symbols and subject matter in the whole set; but the paintings are in a more polished, surrealist style; whereas the prints are more intense and much grittier. I think this will present an interesting contrast visually; and, in a way, the contrast reflects the themes in the title.

How did you get started?
As a kid, drawing was my natural response to anything interesting, so I realized pretty early on that I needed to create images in some capacity.

What are your goals for the future?
I'd like to show my work in Berlin someday. I'd also like to go back to art school and earn an MFA. I want to be the best artist I can be, even if it takes me until I'm 100 years old.